THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET PROPOSAL: THE OUTLAYS -- Agriculture; Less for Wetlands And Rural Aid

By NEIL A. LEWIS

Published: February 3, 2004

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2—
The budget submitted on Monday by President Bush was good news for some departments and agencies and not-so-good news for others.

President Bush's budget of more than $81 billion for the Department of Agriculture includes more money for the division responsible for research into mad cow disease. But there are significant reductions in financing of conservation and rural development.

For example, the administration suggested that it would ask Congress to reduce the number of acres eligible for a program that pays farmers to retire land from cultivation and convert it into wetlands.

Scott Faber, a water resources specialist for Environmental Defense, a organization based in New York, said that in seeking to reduce this program, the annual wetlands reserve program, to 200,000 acres from 250,000, administration officials were ''missing a huge opportunity to help farmers who want to reduce pollution.''

The budget maintains, for the most part, the subsidies that generally benefit large agribusinesses.

The budget for food and marketing, which covers research into mad cow disease, would rise by nearly $200 million. Tom Buis, the chief economist of the National Farmers Union, said that while that was helpful, the overall budget severely cut back programs that supported agricultural life in rural communities. ''We're really concerned that rural development and conservation programs are being cut in the president's budget,'' Mr. Buis he said. NEIL A. LEWIS